


Red and Gold

by theriveroflight



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Celebrations, Chinese New Year, Cross-cultural, Family Bonding, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22410277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: It's Chinese New Year!
Relationships: Sabine Cheng & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Tom Dupain
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	Red and Gold

**Author's Note:**

> Canon divergence in which Marinette grows closer to her Chinese heritage post Kung Food. I go along with the quarter-Chinese theory, but seeing as Sabine still seems close to her family, Marinette could celebrate Chinese New Year, feasibly.  
> I come from a mixed family (Asian-American). I have been raised with mostly American culture and an attempt at trying to get some Chinese in there, so the cultural dilemma is relatable, though not quite to the same extent as Marinette.
> 
> Happy Lunar New Year, everyone.

After the whole cooking-show akuma (her  _ famous  _ great-uncle from China), Marinette  _ knew  _ she needed to get closer to her mother’s side.

It was easy to just stick to the French side of her heritage - three out of her four grandparents are French, her father is French, she was raised and still lives in France, she’s been immersed in the culture since birth.

But maybe it will be worth making the effort.

* * *

It was that time of winter where it’s starting to get ugly, everyone is tired, there’s nothing to look forward to. All the holidays were done, and all that was left was the bleak gray skies of January.

But there was something: Chinese New Year.

The bakery typically offered a brief sale around Chinese New Year for any customer that wore red to the store, so Marinette knew something of the traditions, but this is the first year she actually was bothering to care. Her parents typically got her  _ hongbao  _ and cooked a special dinner, but not much.

Marinette has researched. She knew the traditions. This year was going to be different from the past.

She would make sure of it.

* * *

For dinner that night, Marinette made tea. Traditionally, for the giving of  _ hongbao,  _ the child has to offer traditional greetings and something else, but Marinette’s Chinese pronunciation was still awful and she didn’t want to risk saying the wrong thing and potentially offending her parents.

Besides, her parents didn’t know about all the hours she spent researching traditions for Chinese New Year. It was just a nice thing that Marinette was doing for her parents. Nothing wrong with that, right?

And then, instead of opening up the envelopes as soon as she was out of sight of her parents, she decided to wait. There was a tradition in putting them under her pillow to bless sleeping or whatever, it’d be cool.

It gave her a little more suspense on the matter. Cool.

It wasn’t at all like the regular new year - there was plenty of noise and fireworks, too. But Marinette could get a regular night’s sleep, which was a change from going to a friend’s party and setting up the two guys she liked with each other.

They called her grandparents, and all the other people from her mother’s side that they couldn’t meet up with - but at least they could talk to.

Marinette tried her best to follow along. It wasn’t always easy to keep up with everyone talking and chattering, and her head spun trying to listen.

But she had fun, she smiled, she talked to her baby cousins and some of the older ones, tried her best to understand Chinese.

“ _ Meimei,  _ it’s really great that your parents decided to let us talk to you.”

She felt…accepted. She felt good. And she felt a part of something, for once in her life.

Her family had always been divided - she had never spoken to her grandfather on her father’s side, and Grandma was always a bit eccentric. And her mother’s side had always felt so distant with the language gap and timezone gap and everything else that happened. It was always just her mother, her father, and her.

But now, there could be more. She could be closer to more of her family. She already brought Grandfather back to the family, though he and Grandma hadn’t really reunited (which was completely understandable).

Whatever family she could get closer to, she would.

And of course, the family she chose, too. Tikki and Alya and Nino and Kim and Chat. Her friends. Part of her family, just like these people, no matter what.

And at the end of the night, when she had to go to bed, she spoke with Tikki.

“Do you think it’s worth it?” she asked.

“I think if it makes you happy, Marinette,” the kwami replied, “it is.”

(Fifteen days later, the new year technically ended. Everything went back to normal after the first couple days, but Marinette still carried the mind and memory.

And it was definitely worth it, in every single way. This year, it wasn’t the same. This year, it was better. Marinette wouldn’t trade that for anything.)


End file.
